9.05am: Good morning and welcome to Middle East Live. Today is 1 May, recognised in many countries as Labour Day – including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Syria and Tunisia among the Arab countries. Some demonstrations are expected in connection with that. Meanwhile, we shall also be monitoring the latest developments in Syria and Bahrain.

Syria

• Mortar bombs hit a town in northern Syria's Idlib province this morning, killing 10 people, nine of them from the same family, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

• UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has condemned yesterday's "terrorist bomb attacks" in Damascus and Idlib, though he noted that there have been security improvements "in areas where UN monitors are deployed".

Iraq

• Vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi has been charged with several murders, including the killing of six judges, the BBC reports citing court officials in Baghdad. Hashemi, a Sunni Muslim who says the charges are motivated by sectarianism, fled to the Kurdish north of Iraq last December when a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Yemen

• The UN's envoy in Yemen has asked ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh to stop meddling in the country's affairs, the Associated Press reports. Saleh stepped down in February after more than a year of protests against his 34-year rule. The envoy Jamal Benomar complained to Saleh after his son appointed a relative to head a new security unit.

United Arab Emirates

• Amnesty International has called on the UAE to release nine political activists who it says are being held "solely on account of their affiliation with a non-violent political group and their peaceful criticism of the government".

9.31am:Libya: Registration of voters and candidates begins today, ahead of elections to the National Congress scheduled for 19 June. A number of Libyan Twitter users are celebrating this development and encouraging others to register: they will be the first free elections in more than 40 years.

9.42am:Tunisia: Labour Day demonstrations in Tunisia will shortly be under way – with full support from the moderately Islamist Ennahda party.

Ennahda, which won the largest number of seats in last year's election, has urged all Tunisians "to actively participate in the celebration organised by the UGTT [Tunisian General Labour Union], in recognition of the workers' role in the revolution".

Tunisia Live says the interior ministry has authorised only two protests in Tunis – one in Avenue Habib Bourguiba organised by UGTT and the other on Mohamed V Avenue by the Tunisian Union Workers (UTT).

According to the ministry's communiqué, organisers and participants must respect the agreed-upon times and not disrupt traffic or neighboring shops and cafés. "It is also incumbent upon protesters to preserve public and private property."

So far, Tunisia Live says, Avenue Habib Bourguiba is peaceful, and the police presence is minimal. "People are sitting beside the clock tower enjoying the sun. Some cafes remain open, though most shops along the main thoroughfare are closed."

10.13am:Morocco: The video below is said to record an historic moment: the first use of Tamazight in Morocco's parliament. The new constitution, approved in a referendum last year, finally gave official status to Tamazight, the Berber language used by many Moroccans.

According to Amazigh Times, the speaker in the video is MP Fatima Chadou, asking a question about a government programme for teaching the language. In the meantime, it seems parliament will have to provide translation facilities for non-Berber MPs.

10.28am:Bahrain: Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the authorities to release Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and 13 other jailed leaders of last year's anti-government protests immediately. HRW says the authorities have produced no evidence that the jailed leaders were doing anything other than exercising their basic human rights.

The call to release them followed yesterday's announcement that a re-trial will be held. Referring to the original trial, HRW says:

A special military court convicted the 14 protest leaders, along with seven others tried in absentia, of offences related to peaceful political activities – speeches they made, meetings they attended, documents found on their computers, as well as calling for and participating in street protests between February 14 and March 15, 2011.

The trial also violated numerous international fair trial standards and relied on apparently coerced confessions. Al-Khawaja and seven others were sentenced to life in prison; the others were sentenced to between 2 and 15 years.

Al-Khawaja has been on a hunger strike since February 8, 2012, demanding freedom for himself and his co-defendants.

10.54am:Jordan: Last week's resignation of prime minister Awn al-Khasawneh has shocked Jordanians – and none more so than the Jordanian king, Mohammad Abu Rumman writes in a sharp commentary for Ammon News. Just below the surface, there seems to be considerable friction between King Abdullah and his departed premier. Abu Rumman, a political analyst at the University of Jordan's Centre for Strategic Studies, says:

Jordanian prime ministers typically come and go at the discretion of the king. They are often the last to know of their fate, and passively accept their dismissals until the next time their services might be needed.

Khasawneh violated political tradition by submitting his resignation while abroad in Turkey, through one of his ministers, with a language devoid of the traditional praise and reverence. Jordanian monarchs are not accustomed to being curtly dismissed by their hand-chosen government officials.

The king's discomfort with this perceived disrespect, and concern that it might become a rallying point for the opposition, was palpable. He responded with an aggrieved letter that blamed the premier for slowing down the process of reform. The palace hinted that Khasawneh was the obstacle to holding early parliamentary elections because he preferred postponing the elections to 2013.

A massive media campaign denouncing the former prime minister has likely been inspired by the palace, which clearly hopes to prevent the opposition from exploiting Khasawneh's resignation to blame the king for the absence of meaningful reform. It will now fall on the government of the conservative new prime minister Fayez Tarawnah to deliver on these reforms... or, more likely, to oversee their continuing failure.

11.00am:Syria: The Chinese news agency, Xinhua, is getting excited about the parliamentary elections due to be held in Syria on 7 May. "More than 7,000 candidates from more than eight parties will be competing for 250 seats," it says.

Streets in Syria are decked with candidates' election campaign banners and posters, with most of the slogans emphasising national unity, greater youth participation and peaceful change. Many Syrians believe the upcoming elections can bring vitality to the country and pave the way for reforms.

They also hope new parliamentarians will be more responsive to people's needs. Others say they'll go to the polls to show support for strengthening the country.

11.17am:Libya: Twitter users have begun posting photos of Libyans registering to vote. Registration for the June election began this morning.

11.26am:Syria: At least 12 soldiers have been killed in clashes with defectors in the eastern town of Deir Ezzor, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A civilian and several other people also died when the soldiers used rockets and heavy artillery, it added.

Also in Deir Ezzor, the short video clip above, posted on YouTube yesterday, appears to show female students at the agricultural college attacking a female member of the shabiha (pro-government thugs).

11.34am:Tunisia: The Labour Day marches have got under way in Tunis, and all seems well so far. You can follow latest developments on the Tunisia Live website. Here are a few of their latest posts:

10:45am: Ismail Sahbani – secretary general of the UTT – joins thousands of demonstrators enthusiastically chanting the national anthem on Athena Street as they begin to march to Avenue Mohamed V. The crowd cheers, "All Tunisians are equal! Jobs are everyone's right!"

11:15am: UTT demonstrators enter the Palais des Congres – a large conference hall located on Avenue Mohamed V – to continue celebrations. Festivities marked by a band performing live music inside of the conference hall.

11.53am:Syria: Twenty people have been killed by regime forces today, according to the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) activist network, which warns that some villages in the northern Idlib province are suffering "the worst shelling ... since the beginning of the Revolution".

It puts the toll from this morning's mortar blasts at 15, with "hundreds" wounded as a result of heavy mortar fire and tank shelling in the villages of Mashmashan, Kastan, and Balmees. "There are reports that a number of homes have been destroyed in these villages," it adds. These claims could not be independently verified. The LCC reports:

Regime forces continue to clearly target homes. The area is suffering a humanitarian crisis due to the difficulty in treating the wounded, the continuous shelling, and the lack of electricity or communications. This is taking place while the UN Observers are in Syria, and just days before Annan's report on the situation in Syria is due.

Among the other casualties reported were two people killed in Hama, one in Daraa, one in Raqa and one in Qamishly. The LCC says multiple explosions and heavy gunfire have been heard in the Baba Amr district of Homs. Sky's Tim Marshall, reporting today from the conflict-ridden city, says that despite heavy losses the Free Syrian Army has retained control of much of the city. He writes:

The FSA stronghold is the Khaldia district but it manages to keep the Syrian army out of other quarters as well.

The area is devastated. High-rise buildings have collapsed, their floors pancaked one on top of the other.

Shops and houses have also been destroyed by artillery fire. Rubble is strewn everywhere, and there appears not be a single building which is not in some way damaged.

There are still hundreds of civilians living in Khaldia among the FSA fighters who say they are there to protect them.

12.19pm:Lebanon/Syria: A senior officer in the Free Syrian Army has denied any links to the weapons shipment intercepted by the Lebanese military on Friday night.

"We have nothing to do with this ship, which we consider a fabrication by intelligence agencies to embarrass the international community and claim that weapons are reaching the Free Syrian Army," he said in remarks quoted by the Beirut Daily Star today.

The Lebanese army says the weapons were found in three containers carried by the Sierra Leone-flagged Letfallah II, which was impounded and taken to a navy port in Beirut.

Pictures released by the Lebanese army showed dozens of crates inside the containers, some of them filled with belts of heavy ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades. Labelling on one box said it contained fragmentation explosives, and several identified them as coming from Libya.

The ship's owner has told Reuters that the vessel was due to unload in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli (from where it would probably have been easy to smuggle them into Syria). The mainly Sunni Muslim city has seen regular protests in support of the 13-month uprising against the Assad regime in neighbouring Syria.

The Daily Star says a military prosecutor has ordered the ship's 11-member crew to be held for questioning.

12.21pm:Syria: Hundreds of mourners are shown in this video walking behind white pickup trucks for the funeral of the Mishmishan mortar shelling victims.

According to AP, the piece of paper shown in front of the camera lists seven dead. The bodies, it says, are carried in the back of the trucks.

12.51pm:Bahrain: Labour Day demonstrations have been held in the capital of Manama and several other towns and villages. In a country where activists say thousands of workers have been dismissed from their jobs for taking part in anti-government protests, the day has particular resonance.

Maryam Alkhawaja of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, posted this Tweet earlier:

On Labor day we stand w all those sacked in #bahrain for participating in protests, liking pix on facebook and/or writing on twitter #mayday

1.12pm:Bahrain: BBC journalist Frank Gardner has been allowed a five-minute meeting with imprisoned activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. The two are seen together earlier today in a picture on the BBC website, with Khawaja sitting on the edge of his hospital bed.

Mr Khawaja told the BBC his medical treatment had been good "except for the force-feeding" (which Bahraini officials deny). The BBC report continues:

He was dressed in overalls and sitting on the edge of his bed, unrestrained.

Our correspondent says the 51 year old was drinking fluids, and hospital staff said he was also drinking regular nutritional supplements.

However, Mr Khawaja said he would continue his hunger strike, which began on 8 February ...

Hospital staff told our correspondent that Mr Khawaja was getting "VIP treatment" and that they had been frustrated at reports from his supporters that he was being mistreated.

Syria

• Violence returned to the northern province of Idlib, where mortar shelling killed 10 people – nine of them from the same family in the village of Mashmashan, activists said. The Local Coordination Committees (LCC) said 15 people had been killed in total during the morning's attacks on three different villages.

• At least twelve soldiers were killed in clashes with defectors in the eastern Deir Ezzor province, activists said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the troops then hit back with mortar and machinegun fire, killing at least one civilian and destroying a school.

Bahrain

• Demonstrations have been held in the capital Manama and other towns and villages to mark Labour Day. Activists said the marches were held in honour of people who have lost their jobs as a result of criticising the government.

• BBC journalist Frank Gardner has been allowed a five-minute meeting with imprisoned activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. Mr Khawaja told the BBC his medical treatment had been good "except for the force-feeding" (which Bahraini officials deny).

• Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the authorities to release Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and 13 other jailed leaders of last year's anti-government protests immediately. HRW says the authorities have produced no evidence that the jailed leaders were doing anything other than exercising their basic human rights.

1.56pm:Palestinian territories: In a new threat to freedom of expression, Wattan TV, an independent broadcaster, faces a potentially crippling court case. It is being sued for $1m over a programme which alleged corruption in a Palestinian university.

Guardian journalist Harriet Sherwood reports on the case from Ramallah.

This follows the revelation last week that at least eight news websites had been made unavailable to many internet users in the West Bank, on the orders of the Palestinian Authority.

The websites were all said to be critical of President Abbas and sympathetic towards Muhammad Dahlan, a former Fatah leader and a critic of Abbas.

The Palestinian communications minister, Mashour Abu Daqa, resigned in protest at the censorship. He said blocking of the websites was "bad for the image of the Palestinian Authority in the modern world".

2.30pm:Egypt: May Day seems to be a low-key affair in Egypt. Cairo-based journalist Austin Mackell tweets:

2.48pm:Syria: Sky News says Syrian officials have confiscated one of its TV cameras after its crew filmed a protest in Damascus. The crew were working legally in Syria with visas, permits and full credentials, it says.

Sky quotes its foreign affairs editor, Tim Marshall, who was there:

We were filming near a statue in the centre of town and about 20 activists started a protest near us. They walked through traffic, not stopping it, and went on for about four minutes.

Suddenly guys ran out from the court building with truncheons and guns and a lot in plain clothes. A uniformed officer with a machine gun approached us and violently ripped the camera away from us.

There was a struggle between us and the policeman. He then ran off down the road with it ...

It is a contravention of the six-point peace plan on two counts – firstly not to allow journalists to film freely and secondly, not to allow demonstrations.

2.50pm:Libya: The International Criminal Court in The Hague says the Libyan authorities have challenged the court's right to try Saif al-Islam Gaddafi on crimes against humanity, according to AP.

Tripoli has always insisted it wants to try the late dictator's son on home soil and appears now to have followed through on its threat to issue a formal submission challenging the court's jurisdiction. The ICC has urged the country's rulers to hand over Saif, who is wanted on charges of killing and persecuting civilians in the early days of the uprising that eventually brought down his father.

More detail on this when we have them.

3.17pm:Syria: An Islamist group calling itself al-Nusra Front has claimed responsibity for a blast in Damascus last week that targeted security forces and an Iranian cultural centre, NOW Lebanon reports via AFP.

Journalist Nicholas Blanford discusses the group and its background in an article for the Christian Science Monitor. He writes:

The Syrian opposition has cast doubts on the jihadist provenance of past suicide bombings, claiming they were actually carried out by the regime to justify its claims that it is confronting "al-Qaida terrorists" and "armed terrorist gangs" rather than an ostensibly peaceful opposition ...

Some analysts have long maintained that the Syrian authorities have cooperated with jihadist networks on a short-term tactical basis, even though the nominally secular nature of Syria's Baathist regime and its Alawite identity makes it an unlikely bedfellow with Sunni jihadists. Such jihadists view the Alawite faith, an obscure offshoot of Shiite Islam, as apostate.

On the other hand, there is increased evidence that the year-long uprising in Syria is attracting the interest of jihadist militants looking for a new theatre of conflict following the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and the gradual cessation of NATO military operations in Afghanistan.

3.31pm:Syria: A different kind of protest in Damascus: handing out flowers with tags in memory of Ghiath Matar:

3.35pm:Syria: More than 34 children have allegedly been killed in Syria since the "truce" of 12 April, according to the UN's envoy for children and armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy.

In a statement, she is said to be "alarmed by yet another wave of extreme violence".

Reports indicate that two children were killed today in a mortar attack. In recent days, at least one child was killed during anti-Government protests, and the dead body of a girl was retrieved from the rubble of a collapsed house in Hama ...

I urge all parties in Syria to refrain from indiscriminate tactics resulting in the killing and wounding of children. It is the responsibility and humanitarian imperative of all parties to protect and prevent unnecessary suffering of girls and boys.

3.45pm:Libyans in Libya aren't the only ones getting excited about next month's elections (see 11.17am). Those living abroad will also be entitled to vote – so long as they register first.

In Britain, the Libyan consular affairs website has posted details of the places where they can register – including Aberdeen, Bradford, Birmingham, London, Manchester, Leicester and Liverpool. Twitter is full of messages like this one:

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has some qualms about the rules for disqualifying certain candidates, which it says are too vague:

The current regulations prohibit people from holding senior government posts or running for office if they were "known for glorifying" the previous government or they "stood against the February 17 revolution" that overthrew Gaddafi. The standards and procedures to determine whether an individual meets these and a host of other criteria are unclear, Human Rights Watch said.

"After decades of corrupt dictatorship, public officials should meet high standards of integrity," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "But exclusion from public office should be based on concrete and provable claims of wrongdoing, rather than poorly defined connections with the previous government."

4.44pm:Syria: The head of UN Peacekeeping Hervé Ladsous is currently briefing the media on the situation in Syria. So far, he has said that:

• The Syrian government has refused three visa requests for military observers.

• There are only 24 UN observers on the ground for the moment. He expects the number to increase rapidly in the next few weeks and aims to have all 300 observers deployed to Syria by the end of May.

• Governments have committed only 150 monitors so far. The UN needs more.

More in greater detail soon.

5.10pm:Syria: UN observers are spending too little time in neighbourhoods in one conflict-ridden province, according to the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) activist network.

In a message on their Facebook page, the LCC said that the observers' visit to the city of Ariha in Idlib province had been short and "did not exceed several minutes". The city had been "under violent shelling most of the day" yesterday, it added.

The activists also claim that observers rejected their attempts to show them where the regime was stationing its military machinery in the town of Jisr al-Shughour. They say that 141 people, including nine children, have been killed in Idlib province since UN observers arrived in Syria on Sunday.

5.25pm:Libya: The International Criminal Court will be depriving the Libyan people an "historic opportunity" if it insists on trying Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah al-Senoussi in the Hague, the Libyan authorities have said.

In a formal submission to the court, the authorities say that they have made good progress in repairing Libya's legal system and that their desire to try the two men at home "reflects a genuine willingness and ability to bring the persons concerned to justice." Their own investigation into Saif al-Islam will be completed "within the next few weeks", they add.

According to AP, the submission reads:

To deny the Libyan people this historic opportunity to eradicate the long-standing culture of impunity would be manifestly inconsistent with the object and purpose [of the international court].

And adds:

Libya respectfully submits that...its (own) national judicial system is actively investigating Mr. Gadhafi and Mr. al-Senoussi for their alleged criminal responsibility for multiple acts of murder and persecution...amounting to crimes against humanity.

Syria

• The UN's envoy for children and armed conflict said she was "alarmed" by what seemed to be another wave of "extreme violence" hitting the country. More than 34 children had reportedly been killed since the ceasefire of 12th April, she said.

• Violence returned to the northern province of Idlib, where mortar shelling killed 10 people – nine of them from the same family in the village of Mashmashan, activists said. At least twelve soldiers were killed in clashes with defectors in the eastern Deir Ezzor province, they added.

• All 300 UN observers will be on the ground by the end of May, said UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, while admitting that only 24 had arrived so far. Despite the low numbers and continuing violence, he insisted the mission was having a "visible impact" on the security situation.

• Activists in the northern province of Idlib said the observers were not staying long enough in violence hotspots. The LCC said it believed 141 people had died in the province since the arrival of observers on Syrian soil.

• Sky News said Syrian officials had confiscated one of its TV cameras after its crew filmed a protest in Damascus. The crew were working legally in Syria with visas, permits and full credentials, it said.

Bahrain

• Demonstrations were held in the capital Manama and other towns and villages to mark Labour Day. Activists said the marches were held in honour of people who have lost their jobs as a result of criticising the government.

Libya

• The Libyan authorities filed a formal submission challenging the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to try Colonel Gaddafi's son and spy chief. Libya was "actively investigating" the two men and would, in the case of Saif al-Islam, be finished within weeks, the authorities said.